Famed television game show host and animal-rights activist Bob Barker revealed what spurred his meeting with leaders of Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians to discuss the tribe's caged bear exhibit.

Barker, who grew up on the Rosebud Sioux Reservation in South Dakota, said he was told about the exhibit by Rep. Bill Young (R-Florida). He said Young's wife visited the reservation and was upset with the way the bears were being displayed.

"To think that with as advanced as our civilization is now that there is any place in the United States where bears are kept in pits is just almost unbelievable,” Barker told tribal leaders at a meeting yesterday, The Asheville Citizen-Times reported. “Just picture yourself, if your life, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, month after month, was in a pit.”

Barker said the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals was already investigating the exhibit. That has upset tribal leaders, who say the group is wearing out its welcome on the reservation.

“I am going to ask this Tribal Council, if we have further complaints about PETA coming to the boundary and doing what you guys have been doing, I am going to ask that you guys be banned,” Chief Michell Hicks said yesterday.

Get the Story:
Bob Barker, PETA call for release of Cherokee zoo animals (The Asheville Citizen-Times 7/29)

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Bob Barker to meet with Eastern Cherokee chief (7/28)